A major character is never referred to by their actual or full name, instead being addressed by a title, nickname, Only One Name, or none at all. Reasons for this vary, but it often serves the function of making a character seem more mysterious or eccentric.

In older (pre-1900 in North America; pre-1970 in the UK) fiction, a narrator may refer to a character (especially an older or more socially prominent character) by his or her surname. This is because at that time first names were much less commonly used socially than they are now; a young character may not even know the first name of an older character he or she is not related to. It was also common in that time to blank out the names of real people to avoid lawsuits and the like. This is often true in Japanese media set in the modern day as well, as first names are seen as being incredibly personal and sometimes not even used by close friends who still opt to use the surname. Interestingly, the reverse is true if the work is set in some periods of Japanese history where the size of many of the clans that dominated society meant that it was hard to figure out who you were talking about if you just used the surname so given names were used more instead. In other Asian media, however, you will often hear people referred to by their first names, but almost never by their last names - partly because of the low diversity of surnames in many Asian languages.

This trope can be somewhat justified, however, due to Nominal Importance: it's difficult enough for the writers to come up with good names for the main protagonists; it would be incredibly painstaking to come up with equally good names for a cast of characters who exist solely as part of the setting and serve no further purpose to the narrative.

Examples:

The protagonists of Yandere No Onna No Ko are never named. They may share the same surnames as some of their relatives (Nagisa, Yumemi, Alice and Elise), but that would the closest things you would have to a surname. One character calls him "Elison", but that's because she's delusional and is convinced that they were lovers in another life.

The protagonists of Yandere Heaven don't have a first or a last name. The Yandere brothers tend to provide sibling terms in place of a name.

Wolverine was known only as Logan (and he was around for several years before even that much was revealed). He had amnesia, and no-one knew what his real name was. In his origin series, Wolverine's name was revealed to be James Howlett, having stolen the name "Logan" from his family's groundskeeper, who turned out to be Wolverine's biological father. This information is not used in most adaptations, although in X-Men Origins: Wolverine Sabretooth refers to him as "Jimmy", and his full name is the same as it is in the comics.

Rogue spent a large portion of her existence known only as that, but it was revealed in 2004 to be Anna Marie. She once used the alias Anna Raven, which consists of the first names of her and her foster mother, Mystique.

Bishop's first name was revealed to be Lucas during the X-Treme X-Men series.

Sage is yet another X-Man to not have a full name. Tessa is believed to be a part of her name, but it is unknown as to whether this is her first name, last name or even just an alias.

X-23 wasn't named at all in her first comics appearance in NYX. This was actually invoked in-universe, as well: She didn't receive her "real" name, Laura, until Sarah Kinney names her in the very last pages of Innocence Lost #6. She was thirteen years old before she was given a name other than her Facility codename/designation.

In The Dandy comic "Blinky", the titular character is only ever called Blinky; his real name is never revealed. In fact, the comic implies his name actually is Blinky.

In the Transformers comic series "The War Within: The Dark Ages", a character is introduced who is only ever referred to as "the Fallen," as his name was taken away from him by his fellow Transformers after he betrayed Primus and sided with Unicron. This is especially significant since Transformer names are not only personal labels, but usually define their entire purpose, personality, and/or function. (In the novel "Transformers Exodus", his original name is given as "Megatronus Prime.")

Ra's Al-Ghul left his real name behind centuries ago (as, presumably, did Vandal Savage), and is referred to only by his title. But Vandal Savage's real name was Vandar Adg, it's just eons out of date and used only in cave days.

Ra's' half-sister who becomes a thorn in Tim Drake's side uses only the title "Daughter of Acheron". She's not the only known user of the title but the other also goes by "Promise" even though she has also left behind her name, which prevents Tim from realizing they might be allied until he's already been captured.

DCU character who embodies this trope: The Phantom Stranger. This is the title used for copyright purposes, and whenever he is listed as a guest star in someone else's book. In the stories themselves, he is almost always referred to as "The Stranger" when the speaker wishes to be specific, or "my friend" when brevity is in order (and he happens to be present). Neil Gaiman used "Brotherless One" or descriptives, such as "your friend in the white turtleneck" in The Books of Magic. In a single exception, Jan or Zayna expressed amazement that almost the entire Justice League of America attended a particularly momentous gathering, "... except the Phantom Stranger."

In Dennis the Menace (UK) (as featured in The Beano), Dennis's parents are simply known as "Mum" and "Dad". The creators once claimed in response to a reader's letter that his parents were actually named "Dennis's Mum" and "Dennis's Dad" at birth. This is true for all parents in The Beano except for Les Pretend's dad called Des.

Alter Tse'elon, the Israeli Defense Force Colonel Badass from Y: The Last Man. Her parents had already lost two children when she was born, so they followed an old Jewish superstition of keeping her real name a secret so that the Angel of Death couldn't find her. After Yorick realizes she's a Death Seeker, she announces her real name to the crowd. It's Yedida, by the way.

Agent 355 from the same comic. She eventually whispers her name in Yorick's ear, but it's never revealed to the readers. Word of God says you can find it somewhere hidden in the book. The popular fan theory is that it's Peace, since that's written on her gravestone.

V from V for Vendetta. (S)He states: "I do not have a name. You can call me V"

In The Immortal Iron Fist, the ninja-servant girl who is Orson Randall's daughter was never named, due to rather restricted freedoms. According to her, she'll have made a name for herself by the time Danny sees her again.

In Warren Ellis' breakout series Nextwave, a protagonist is named only "The Captain"; following his gaining powers, he discovered that almost every name which began with "Captain" had been used or was unusable; eventually, he settled for "The Captain", only to find that the name was also taken, and was forced to pay the original Captain for its use. Due to his abusive childhood, depression, and alcoholism, he refuses to divulge his real name; his teammates theorize that he may not even remember it. Ellis' original pitch also notes that the character "has been every crappy Marvel character with the word "Captain" in front of their name".

In the original Stanley and His Monster, Stanley called the monster "Spot" but his actual name was never revealed. In the Post-Crisis reboot by Phil Foglio (consisting of an origins issue and a miniseries), it was explicitly established that he didn't have a name.

Garth Ennis seems to love this one, with characters like the Pilgrim, the Saint of Killers, the Female, the Frenchman, Arseface…

Star Trek: Crew is an IDW miniseries by John Byrne about the life of Majel Barrett's character from "The Cage," who was only referred to as "Number One." Byrne manages to go through the entire series (and a few guest appearances in his other Star Trek books) without ever once revealing the character's name. Indeed, for most of it, he couldn't even call her "Number One," as that was simply a nickname for her rank in "The Cage."

Katy's younger sister in Katy Keene didn't have a name in the first run. The two revivals gave her different names, but neither was mentioned often.

Ghost of the Thunderbolts erased all record of his original identity after he became Ghost. When he recounts his origin, every mention of his original name is blacked out.

Doctor Strange's faithful servant is known only as Wong. Lampshaded in a comic Defenders series when Nightmare asked if 'Wong' were his first or last name — and followed up Strange's exasperated silence with "You don't know, do you?"

In The Smurfs, both the comic books and the cartoon show, there are important characters in the stories that don't have any names.

The Sage and The Minstrel in Groo the Wanderer have never been given proper names, to the point some speculate that those ARE their names and they are possibly magical spirits of some sort (Sage, even flashbacks, always seems to be an old man, and the head of Minstrel's lute changes panel to panel). Famously also, Sage's dog didn't have a name for much of the book's run, and after a running gag of persistent questions about it in the letter's page, Sergio and Mark gave him the name of ANOTHER running gag from the letter's page ("Mulch").

In Kid Eternity, the protagonist was originally only known as "the Kid," and his grandfather was only referred to as "Gran'pa." This only changed years later when the series underwent Canon Welding with the Shazam series, and the Kid became Christopher "Kit" Freeman (Freddy's younger brother).

Daredevil has a kid in his 50th Anniversary issue, which is set in a Distant Future. We never learn the identity of the kid's mother.

In Raymond Briggs' The Man, the title character's real name is never revealed. He claims not to have one.

The Robin Series villain known as "The Cheater" goes out of their way to hide behind holograms and other devices and manages to keep their name from being uncovered even after being apprehended.

Comic Strips

The Broons. Only the older kids have names. Their parents are Maw and Paw Broon (and Paw's father is Grandpaw Broon), and their younger siblings are The Twins and The Bairn.

In Calvin and Hobbes, the parents names are never revealed nor is the family last name. The full names of Rosalyn, Moe and Miss Wormwood are never told either. Susie Derkins is the only character whose full name is revealed. Word of God says that this was intentional on Watterson's part, because, as far as the strip was concerned, Calvin's parents were only important because they were Calvin's Parents.

This is part of the reason why Watterson scrapped the Uncle Max character after his first appearance—it was altogether too awkward that Max couldn't refer to his brother by name.

The Pointy-Haired Boss does not have a name. Since most of the characters in the strip are his employees, Scott Adams gets around by having them refer to the character as "the Boss" and address him as "sir". In one episode of the animated show, the Boss signs a delivery form. The delivery man looks at the clipboard incredulously, and says "that's your name?" We never see what it is, however we later hear he signed as "Eunice". The same episode established that his name is NOT "Eunice" (it's his alias for line-dancing) or "Bob Johnson" (which he uses for mail fraud).

The hyper-intelligent Garbage-Man: In an early strip, Dilbert tells another character his Garbage-Man's name is "Gus Simpson", but this may have been before the character of the Garbage-Man was fully developed, and could refer to someone else.

The full names of Marcie and Schroeder, and Pig-Pen's real name, are never revealed.

Other characters were given last names, but these were hardly ever used, meaning that these characters effectively remained without surnames for most readers. For example, Peppermint Patty's surname (spoken only once) was "Reichart" (pronounced "rike-hart").

The Little Red-Haired Girl's name is never revealed in the comic strip, though at least two of the animated specials ("It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown" and "Happy New Year Charlie Brown") called her "Heather". However, despite writing the specials himself, Schulz considered both the name and her appearance (in the strip she was The Ghost) non-canonical.

Almost no adults in the strip are given names, and in the animated specials, they don't even have intelligible voices. One minor exception in the strip is Linus' teacher, who we know as "Miss Othmar".

The girl who sits next to Rerun in school is never referred to by name, despite being a fairly major character for the last few years of the strip.

The Scamp newspaper comic makes the odd decision to state the fact that Lady and Tramp never got around to giving Scamp's siblings names. The comic runs for two months before they decide to address this fact and actually decide to start giving them one.

The bratty boy who eventually learns to do things for himself in The Key has no given name, in contrast to the boy's parents, his grandfather, the scientist, and even a little Robot Girl, whom all have names.

The only member of Celestia and Luna's family who isn't named is their Father. Word of God is that His name can't be pronounced by mortals. (Though Havoc calls him "Buddy" if that's worth anything.)

The first Big Bad, Loneliness, never refers to herself as such. Rather, Twilight calls her that, and she doesn't bother contradicting it.

Patch's first antagonist in the 7 Dreams/Nightmares collection is never named during her story, referred to in the credits as the Pegasus Despot. It's only during his cameo in Starlight's story at her afterlife trial that his name (Film Critique) is given.

What About Witch Queen? has Meyer's captain, who's always called "the captain" or "scout captain". It doesn't help that we only see him when it's Meyer's POV.

The squadron medical officer in Wings To Fly is introduced to the reader as "Larishminova", with the acknowledgement that this is the best a different character can do to pronounce their name and it's not a correct pronunciation or what's on their nametag. They're never referred to in-story by name, and never referred to in narration by anything but the mispronunciation.

In general, whenever the fanmade "Hakurei Miko" character (if that is supposed to her) is used or someone is cast as Reimu's mother, she's in general not referred to as having a name for various reasons, be it Nominal Importance or whichever, as in the case of Osana Reimu, although this is justified in the aforementioned that she is a forgotten Miko, in which case she was usually called "Mom" or "Clumsy Miko-san"

Likewise, for awhile in the Gensokyo 20XX, Reimu's birthmother was never reffered to as having a name, aside from "Mikosan", "Reimu's Mother" , or, by Yukari, "the slattern". Of course, this was probably because no other Youkai, besides Yukari, knew or remembered her name. It wasn't until a certain story in the series, was she given a name, revealing it to be "Reiko". In that vein, Ren, before he was named, wasn't typically called anything besides "Ran's fiance" or "Winston", until about chapter 17 of 20XXIV. We also have his ex-sister in law who is called "Baka's Bitch Wife", "Bitch Wife", or "Paintbrush Bitch" and Word of God did state her reasons for not giving her a name, as "we wouldn't like her anyway"

Maim de Maim has this and the Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" in the form of "The Chancellor" (or, simply. "Chancellor") who is only referred to by the aforementioned. When we first see her in a flashback, she introduces herself as such.

In "The Best Episode Ever", Applejack realizes that her character in the play doesn't have a name, and she breaks character to ask if it's important.

In "Derp and Destruction", Derpy Hooves mentions a few times that she doesn't know if Derpy Hooves is actually her own name or not. (This is almost certainly a reference to how, in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Derpy's name was mentioned in one episode, then edited out of all subsequent broadcasts. And she commonly makes appearances in various EU material and merchandise, which all go to strange lengths to avoid officially naming her.)

Dating A Team Magma Grunt has a main female protagonist who is simply known as the Magma Grunt. The author actually goes out of his way to hide her identity (including her age) when there are scenes it would be revealed.

The Dragon and the Songstress: The rainbow colored dragon that assists Kamui and the sorcerer that cursed Aqua are not given names. Azura only gives them descriptors to identify them.

Eventually Subverted in Disney High School—"the Beast" is not named until the 49th strip, because he has no name in canon (see below). The creator eventually gave in to Fanon and called him "Adam," though.

Films — Animation

In Disney's Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora's father is named King Stefan, but her mother is never called anything but "the Queen". Some children's books published about the movie give her the name "Leah", which many fans have adopted. Weirdly, she doesn't even get listed in the credits of the film at all. In fact, for a while there was absolutely no record of the name of the actress who provided her voice, making her a really nameless entity! It was eventful found out that Flora's voice actress for the film voiced Leah as well.

In The Polar Express, the main character goes on the train and makes friends with three other kids; of the group, only one is named, and even then only at a plot-crucial moment more than halfway through the movie. (It's the lonely boy, Billy.) The credits refer to the others as Hero Boy, Hero Girl and Know-It-All Kid. Meanwhile Hero Boy's little sister, Sarah, gets a name despite only appearing in two scenes at the beginning and end.

In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Huntsman, the Queen, and the Prince do not have names. However, old press material lists the Queen's name as Queen Grimhilde and merchandise released over seventy years later finally gives the Prince's name as Florian.

In the original story (the one Disney used to create his story), there were 100 dwarves, and none of them were given a name.

The doll of Snow White's prince that can be bought at the Disney store is labeled "the Prince," Cinderella's is labeled "Prince Charming," and Belle's is labeled "Beast."

Jack Frost's sister in Rise of the Guardians is never named. This led to a lot of confusion within the fandom, because her actress also voiced another character named Pippa, who isn't named on-screen, so some viewers accidentally assigned the name to the wrong character.

An Extremely Goofy Movie has "Beret Girl". One of the few original characters in the movie who appear at the dancing scene in the credits and the girlfriend of one of the main characters, the movie proves extremely shy about telling us what her name is. Even the credits list her as "Beret Girl".

The BIONICLEDirect-To-DVD movies left a handful of characters unnamed, but these were revealed via credits, bonus features and the toy names. The third movie, however, decided to give an unnamed character a name: the high-ranking Keelerak spider that runs errands for Sidorak and Roodaka was suddenly called Kollorak. The name appears nowhere else in canon and probably wasn't even given a legal check, which is the standard with the official Bionicle names. But Word of God claims it's canon.

In Mulan, Mulan's horse is never named until near the end of the movie. However, during gameplay of Disney Infinity, Mulan's horse (on one of the power discs) is named Kahn.

In Rio 2, the leader of the loggers razing the Amazon is only ever referred to as "Mr. Big".

In The Book of Life, none of the Detention Kids are given names except Sasha, but in the supplementary material everyone but "Goth-kid" is given a name.

The members of TISM performed in balaclavas and went by pseudonyms such as Ron Hitler-Barassi. Most of their real names are still unknown.

The mayor, the sailor man, and the narrator in The Silent City. Justified in the narrator's case since no one officially addresses her. Taken to absurd levels with the mayor due to an exchange where he could reasonably expected to give his name and doesn't:

Stan: And who are you?

The Mayor: I'm the mayor!

Sally Shapiro's real name is so far a mystery, due to her being a Reclusive Artist.

GaMetal's creator has the stagename Jonny Atma, but his real last name is unknown. He described it in an interview as 'Long, German, and very unsexy', though.

Done in Bally's Playboy pinball, which identified its Playmates simply as "Miss ________" ("Miss January", "Miss September", etc.). Also done in Stern Pinball's Playboy, which shows photos of Real Life Playmates, but only identifies them as "Miss January," etc.note They're the 1999 Playmate roster, for the curious.

Ultimately subverted in Strange Science; the Mad Scientst antagonist is never named directly, but a small nametag on his lab coat identifies him as "Dr. E. Shock".

Lights... Camera... Action!, a Pinball game themed around filming an action movie, the name of the film and the names of the stars are never given. The film's main characters are also never properly named, and are only identified by their playing card-based nicknames.

Radio

Ford Prefect is a name picked by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy researcher due to a misunderstanding about Earth. In the books it's revealed he never learnt to pronounce his own name (his father was the Last of His Kind following the Collapsing Hrung Disaster of Betelgeuse VII and named his son in the now extinct Praxibetel dialect), and the kids at school called him Ix (meaning "Boy who is unable to explain what a Hrung is, or why it should choose to collapse on Betelgeuse VII").

The misunderstanding was explained more fully in the movie by showing Ford walking out into the middle of a street and attempting to greet a car, thinking it was the dominant species on Earth. This was a joke that some fans understood without needing the explanation, as Ford Prefects are a kind of car sold in the U.K., Australia, Argentina and Canada. American fans tended not to get the joke, since Ford Prefects were never sold in the U.S.

Another character attempts to use this trope. When Arthur asks his name, he says "My name is not important." After some cajoling, he gives Arthur his name.

Arthur: Slartibartfast?

Slartibartfast: I told you it wasn't important.

Word of God is that Douglas Adams did this as a way of teasing the BBC typist. She was typing out this ridiculous name every time he spoke, and the name never actually occurred in dialogue in his first episode, so he could just as easily have been "Old Man."

Theater

Many characters in Plautus's work, including the protagonist of Casina, whose name is only found in other documents, not in the script.

Most of the characters in Into the Woods. With the exception of Cinderella's stepsisters, the only characters who have proper names are the ones who get them in their original fairy tales.

The protagonist of Kismet is identified in the Dramatis Personae only as "a public poet, later called Hajj." (The poet is identified as "Hajj" once in a case of Thoroughly Mistaken Identity.) In the Ronald Colman film version, he's Hafiz, but again this name is spoken only once, in a moderately loud scene with many people talking at once, and it easily slips past your conscious perception.

None of the characters in the play 12 Angry Men have names. In the script, they are referred to only as "Juror #1", "Juror #2", etc.

In Agnes de Mille's BalletFall River Legend, Lizzie Borden is known only as "the Accused."

In Jonathan Rand's Check Please short plays, the two leads are only given the names of Guy and Girl in the script and are never called by any name on stage.

In the Reefer Madness musical, the man who provides the Framing Device for the story is never reffered to by name; most just call him "The Lecturer".

Generally if there's a Narrator in a stage show they won't be given a name beyond their function, although they can have other names besides 'Narrator', such as the Stage Manager in Our Town or the Leading Player in Pippin.

The Time of Your Life has a character identified as "Kit Carson" in the Dramatis Personae and who introduces himself as Murphy. Given the wild stories he tells, even he might not even remember his real name.

The authority figures in Büchner's Woyzeck are only referred to by their position (Captain, Doctor, Drum Major).

In 1776, only two characters—the Courier and McNair's assistant Leather Apron—are unnamed because they're the only characters invented completely for the play. (Even the background members of Congress have names, though they're only in full detail in a souvenir playbill.)

In King Island Christmas, with the exception of Oolorano, Little Eir, and Father Carroll, the characters are identified only with their role in the community (Schoolteacher, Newlywed Husband, Bachelor Man, Diet Woman, etc.). The character "Little Eir's Mother" is handled both ways; she is usually notated in the score as such, but is called Mary in dialogue twice (once each by Oolorana and Newlywed Wife).

In Next to Normal, it's subtle, but Gabe's name is only actually said once, and only said at the very end when Dan finally accepts his son's death. Throughout the show, this foreshadows the fact that Gabe is just one of Diana's hallucinations, and Dan finally saying the name after years of avoiding it is what signifies him accepting that he still hasn't moved on from Gabe's death.

In Les Misérables, many of the revolutionaries are named in blink-and-you'll-miss-'em, quickly sung lines - including Enjolras, Grantaire, and Gavroche, who are three of the most important revolutionaries in the show (The Leader, The Lancer, and the Team Pet, respectively). However, they are all named in the script, somewhat averting this trope. Likewise, the Bishop is never named in the show and called The Bishop in the script.

Mostly averted in Hamilton, where most characters are named and introduced within seconds of appearing onstage. However, King George III is only ever called "The King", likely due to the fact that there was only one British monarch during the entirety of the show (and thus reducing any possible ambiguity).

Boston Marriage revolves around best friends Anna and Claire, and the stresses put on their relationship when Anna gets a sugar daddy and Claire gets a girlfriend. The sugar daddy's name is never mentioned, reflecting the fact that Anna doesn't actually care for him as a person — and neither is the girlfriend's, despite Claire's passionate proclamations of love, foreshadowing the ending where Claire decides Anna is more important to her. Lampshaded in the case of the girlfriend; when she arrives to visit, Anna's maid can be heard offstage asking her name, but her response is not audible.

In J.B. by Archibald MacLeish, the two Messengers are not named, nor is the girl who accompanies them in one scene and even seems to refer to herself as "Girl."

In the folk tales, pantomimes, and written accounts of Dick Whittington and His Cat, the cat's name is never mentioned. Never mind that she is arguably the true hero of the story, and Dick merely profits from her actions.

Toys

BIONICLE's Big Bad was known as "the Makuta" for most of the line's run, which the fans originally thought was his actual name, until it was revealed to be the name of his species. Eight years into the story, the writer named him Teridax, which caused such a massive uproar from the fans that he has since refused to give out the name of the other big villain, the Shadowed One. The members of the latter's organization, the Dark Hunters are also mostly known by code names, since LEGO couldn't afford to clear the rights for so many unique names. In fact, there are many toyless characters who have no name for the same reason. One of the few nameless toys is the Rahkshi of heat vision from the brand's last setline.

The six Protectors from BIONICLE (2015) weren't named until the first book's author suggested to LEGO that maybe they should be. The 2015 villains were also only given descriptive or generic designations, with only Kulta the Skull Grinder getting a personal name in a magazine description.

Visual Novels

At one point in Kagetsu Tohya Kohaku shows up for the school festival and doesn't really know what to put for her surname, so she just writes Tohno. She, and Hisui by extension, don't actually have last names. Or at least, they don't remember their families or childhood. Ciel's last name is also never given and Ciel also happens to be a pseudonym. Her real first name is Elesia, something mentioned only in passing. It's something a bit more important in her case, marking her as someone who doesn't entirely belong.

From the Ace Attorney series, Calisto Yew. Her real name is never given, the only thing we know about it for certain is that it absolutely is not Calisto Yew. Or Shih-na.

He's been around for 6 games and counting, and no-one knows his honor's name. Or his brother's, who is also a judge. Or his Khura'inese counterpart's own. Judges in general in this series and the spinoffs (other than Justine Courtney) never seem to get given names ever.

There's a hypochondriac who likes to impersonate doctors. He's gone by Dr. Hotti and Dr. Hickfield, but we don't know his real name.

One character is even "The Bellhop Who Swore The Affidavit".

Gumshoe's boss (the guy who invented the Blue Badger) is only ever referred to as Chief.

In Investigations 2, the real name of President Huang's body double is never revealed, even after he turns out to be one of the key characters in the overarching plot.

Despite being the Big Bad of Dual Destinies, we never know the name of the Phantom. Then again, this isn't unexplained, because he comments that he lost and forgot his identity long ago, and now only lives by the personality of whomever he impersonates.

In the Murder MysteryJisei, the protagonist's name is never mentioned, even though you are able to see his face and body. He is also the only character in the game who is not voiced.

But even then, only Ace, Santa, June, and the 9th Man get their full names revealed. Lotus only receives a last name and the others have only first names. One of these eventually gets a canon full name as of the sequel(WARNING: Spoiler is for both games): Junpei Tenmyouji. The rest have full names that were given to them by the creator, but which he considers to be more of a "possibility" than true canon.

In Juniper's Knot both characters stay unnamed through the story. The concept of names doesn't even come up.

The elderly owner of the "From Dust Til Dawn" shop also owns a Noodle stall. Although he is a recurring character who has had more than a few bad experiences as a result of interacting with the main cast, his name has never been revealed.

Adam's lieutenant has occasional speaking lines and was a very enthusiastic and dangerous opponent Weiss once fought and lost to. Although Adam seems to rely heavily on him, the lieutenant's name has never been revealed. Even in the credits, he is listed as "White Fang Lieutenant".

The two leading pigs from The Oats Series are never named despite being the main characters. They simply refer to each other as "brother" although they can be identified by their American (Older Pig) and British (Younger Pig) accents.

Parodied in the case of Rookie from Combat Devolved. He tries to tell the others his name, but no-one cares and resorts to calling him Rookie.

Kouka And Bibi has an interesting variation on this trope: while we know what names the titular characters could technically have, whether each character is named Bibi or Kouka is anybody's guess — even the creator's.

Dreamscape: Eleenin's fairy trio are just called 'fairies' without any distinction between the three.

His surname is explicitly stated multiple times throughout the series as McNinja, but no first name has been yet given, due to a Noodle Incident involving a wizard. His clone goes by Old, as in Old McNinja. He's a farmer.

No one in Awesome Gamerz has a name. They are simply known as player one, two, and girl.

Since Tellurion has no dialogue, no characters have names. The artist has stated they all do have names for the purposes of how he writes, but it is unlikely he will ever reveal them to the public. Otherwise, the main characters are given the nicknames of "Guy", "Girl" and "Robot".

The protagonist (at least initially; she gets a name later in the strip) and her infant son whom she's seeking to rescue from the titular Awful Hospital.

The Bird Feeder has Exotic, an exotic bird of indeterminate species, gender, and name. It originally would only mysteriously appear out of nowhere, and was referred to only as "the exotic bird," and eventually simply nicknamed "Exotic." In #393, Darryl finally asks what its name is, but it only replies that it's name can't be spoken, only sung, and proceeds to sing "Happy Birthday To You." This may or may not be its actual name.

Augustus was originally this from Bittersweet Candy Bowl, and one character, the one who nearly raped Lucy in an earlier chapter, has never been named on-screen at all.

In Blood Is Mine the main character is at various points called "you," "blondie," "the protagonist," "Jane Doe," and "the girl." She knows her own name, and several of the other characters know her real name, but that name is never revealed to the audience.

A character first referred to as 'Kauyon' (a Shout-Out to Warhammer 40,000) in Coga Suro never gains a name, even after actually appearing in the comics a good hundred pages or so after first being alluded to. Oddly, no-one seems to mind not knowing, to the point where it seems like 'Kauyon' is actually his official PEGASUS codename, and other characters occasionally refer to him by nicknames such as 'square-rims', after his glasses.

Counting None of the characters are named. The main character is at one point called "Colonel" but Colonel isn't an actual name but rather a rank in the military. Aside from that only the town itself has a name—Thirston.

Creative Release contains a few characters who have never been named onscreen. One of them is even explicitly called ??? by the narration.

In Darths & Droids, the GM is never given a name, and it is sometimes the Un Reveal. None of the characters use last names, but that's never been conspicuous.

Also, the main character Jim plays from Episodes IV - VI is called Greedo when we first meet him, and Han Solo from shortly afterwards (having murdered a starship captain of that name in order to steal his ship and his identity), but turns out to be a serial identity thief who has had about 8 false names going in alphabetical order - a friend of his from slightly further back greets him as Freddo, and his aliases go all the way back to Alberto. We are never told his real name.

In Freefall, neither the mayor nor her assistant have a name, although as of Feb 2012 there have been discussions on the forums about this possibly changing.

In Girl Genius the Mechanicsburg Assistant is never addressed by name. Eventually it's lampshaded.

Vanamonde: [heavily sleep-deprived] Who are you again? The Assistant: Oh, now don't start.

Gone with the Blastwave doesn't name either of what could be loosely called its protagonists, a jaded Red sniper and his wacky companion, a Red flamethrower trooper. The only place they're given names is on this wiki, which calls them Crosshairs and Pyro respectively after their helmet symbols. Oddly enough, secondary characters get names, such as West and the various Steves.

Many people in Gunnerkrigg Court. According to Word of God, the Suicide Fairies from Gillitie Wood have no names at all prior to becoming human like all "hollow fairies" whose separated souls are waiting for them to join their artificial bodies at the Court; being given a name is a sign they're adults; another fairy has a name but refuses to share it because her best friend gave it to her it's revealed her name is <Snuffle> (her friend was a jackelope) but it has to be said/done in a specific way or it sounds completely different. Jones' name is the last in a long line of aliases, since for most of her life she was the only self-aware being on Earth. Jeanne's "wood elf" boyfriend's name isn't given they were able to Go Into the Light so unless more plotlines related to them come up we'll probably never know.

In Henchman No. 9, the title character's real name is never given. In the script, it's just "Hn9" as the author has never given him a name. Possibly to avoid using that name in the actual comic.

Homestuck would intentionally invoke this trope by referring to characters by their online screen names when their real names hadn't yet been chosen. For example, Jade was referred to only as GG (short for gardenGnostic) until her name was officially chosen at the start of Act 3.

In Looking for Group the Archmage is only known as the Archmage, likewise no one seems to know the Dragon Elder's name. More recently lampshading the latter has become something of a Running Gag, such as Cale mentioning how awkward it is to not know the Dragon Elder's name when the guy got him a birthday card.

Piro and Largo of MegaTokyo, where it's confirmed that Piro at least is his Internet name. It should be noted however that the two are Life Embellished versions of the original creators, Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston, and use their internet usernames.

L33TDude is also consistently referred to by that name and no other.

No one in minus. is named except the titular character and Larry, as cousin of one minus's friends.

Monster Lands has a character who is a necromancer. The character's name? "The Necromancer".

It begins with 8 captives fighting to the death after waking up inside crates with words carved in their foreheads. During the opening chapter they are referred to by the word on their head. 3 of the characters die off. Word of God states that they were referred to as Devin, Diana and Desmond in the script.

The prequel volume Start of Darkness reveals that "Xykon", "Redcloak", and Right-Eye are self-bestowed monikers; the characters' original names remain unknown. Similarly, Chancellor Malack mentions having had a different name before becoming a vampire centuries ago.

Also taken to its logical extreme with "Roy's Archon" who is always referred to by that name, even when people are talking to Roy, because that's literally its name.

Lampshaded by "Hobgoblin Cleric #2". He says that he could have become a great leader like Jirix, but because he was given a generic name, he was resigned to a generic lot in life. A flashback shows that his little brother is named "Hobgoblin Warrior from Strip #433, Panel 3", and, as a Funny Moment, there is only one Hobgoblin Warrior in Strip #433, Panel 3.

In Penny Blackfeather, no name is given for The Adventurer. This is occasionally lampshaded:

Nathaniel: Why is this numpty still following us? The Adventurer: I do have a name, you know.

Phil's Girlfriend in Phil Likes Tacos never had her name said until years in, when it was revealed to be Millie.

The Pink-Haired Girl in Picatrix. The fans just refer to her as PHG (or more commonly, PHB), though Fanon has recently christened her "Nina".

Now confirmed as canon.

In Piled Higher and Deeper, though several of the characters do not have last names, especially notable is the one known to fans (and occasionally referred to by the cartoonist) only as Nameless Guy. Even his sister, Dee (no last name given), tends to call him just "brother."

He publishes papers under the pseudonym "Bob Smith", hoping that a generic name will make him seem more prolific as an author.

The young girl in The Property of Hate is only ever referred to as 'Hero' or 'the Hero'. This later turns out to be a bit of Identity Amnesia, as when the Hero tries to remember her name, she can't (most likely caused by/due to the nature of the world that she's in).

Azul Bufon of Remember appeared repeatedly throughout the first book (In which there are 72 comics) but wasn't given an in-comic name until the first page of Book Two, and was codenamed "Blue" during the preproduction by the writer. Even then, "Azul Bufon" can mean "Blue Fool", so even this could be a cover.

The Boy has a name, revealed in a letter addressed to him in the July 18, 2007 strip: Eustace Boyce, which could stand alone as an explanation for his nickname. However, a second explanation was developed in the March 19, 2008 strip with the introduction of Elodie. It still doesn't explain why early on in the strip both The Boy's parents referred to each other as The Father and The Mother.

Tackleford's mayor at the time when Shelley worked for him was always referred as "Mr. Mayor". It seems that this is an honorific until "The Election", when it's revealed that his name is really James Mayor, after which he's often dubbed "Mayor Mayor".

Sinfest has some of these; in particular, after several months radical feminist "Trike Girl"/"Glossy" was finally revealed to be Xanthe.

Neither of the two protagonists in Skullkickers is yet named. Their names will appear when you least expect it; until then, feel free to call them Baldy and Shorty.

Stand Still, Stay Silent: The dead Christian Pastor lingering in the spirit world intially only remembers her name starting with "A" thanks to Ghost Amnesia. Her memory gets good enough for her to tell Reynir while on her path to the afterlife.

An XKCDstrip centers around the narrator not knowing a woman's name, but feeling too awkward to ask. His dilemma is resolved when they get married and the minister mentions that his bride is named Rachel.

The Comic Adventures of Left & Right: For much of the comic's run, many recurring characters did not have names. On 13 August 2009, the author put up a cast page to correct this, thus legitimizing it as a "real webcomic".

Kate in KateModern revealed in the fourth episode that her name wasn't really Kate. Her real first name, Genevieve, wasn't revealed until episode 88, "Birthday Surprise", while her surname, Strathcarron, wasn't revealed until episode 163, "Prime Suspect". Several other major characters' surnames have not been revealed, including Charlie, Lauren, Sophie and Terrence, but it is not implied that there is any mystery behind those names.

There's also the Watcher and the Shadow, whose lack of names befit their status as anonymous Order agents.

An anonymous member of Danya's terrorist organization is never referred to by name by his colleagues. On the board, he's commonly called 'The Mystery Man'.

In Tales of MU, the ruler of the old empire is always referred to as The Unnameable One. One of Mackenzie's professors also has never been named in canon, but that's more of a subtle Running Gag.

MUniverse tradition has it that the sound denoted by "kh" is reserved for the names of the gods, and that it is blasphemy for anyone who is not a god to have it in their name. As an immortal vampire, the Unnameable One is old enough to predate this tradition, and is named Khulrakh.It is blasphemy to call him by his name, and an insult to a sitting emperor to call him anything but his name. Thus, he is Unnameable.

The title character of Pittsburgh Dad hasn't been given a name, though his wife (Deb) and next-door neighbor (Tom) have.

None of the characters of Fanpro have official names. Naming them seems to be optional in fan works, and they are generally just distinguished by their numbers.

It took 33 episodes of Welcome to Night Vale for Cecil's full name to be revealed (it's Cecil Gershwin Palmer. Probably). Carlos the Scientist, Intern Dana, Old Woman Josie, Telly the Barber, and Kevin are all still going without surnames. Some characters, such as The Man In The Tan Jacket, The Traveler, and The Faceless Old Woman Who Lives In Your House, don't have names at all, and all the angels are simply referred to as "Erika."

Manatee Girl: The Movie has Hunky Marine Biologist Boyfriend...who is known only as Hunky Marine Biologist Boyfriend.

Played with in Killerbunnies, as technically, any Killerbunny born, raised, or used in a lab for laboratory use don't normally have names, aside from their identification codes, which wouldn't be a name, unless it is counted as such, as would be the case with Test Subject 001892300012 ("Lucy"), Experiment XI0014101 ("Marigold"), Child #999 ("Lilith"), and Subject 200167 ("Mango"). However, this, according to Word of God, is subverted in the case of Michealenne, as that is the name on one of her ID tags.

In the SuperMarioLogan series, a recurring character with many different jobs and a thick Brooklyn accent is reffered to as "The Brooklyn Guy". In "Bowser Junior Loses Thomas", he works as a Toys R Us employee. When Chef Pee Pee asks him where his name tag is, he states that he doesn't have a name tag because he doesn't have a name.

Finding Hope, as an homage to classic Spaghetti Westerns, gives us "Nobody" and "Jack Angel", both of which are aliases. In Nobody's case, he gave himself that name as a way to represent his status in society.

Petscop: This applies to both the uploader of the videos and the game's protagonist. There is no clear name given to either of them. At the beginning of the first video, the uploader names his save file "Paul", but it is unclear whether it is his own name or the name he wants to give to the protagonist. For the protagonist, in video 5, the strange artifact known as "TOOL" answers the question "Who am I?" with "Newmaker". This answer is vague, as TOOL is not clear who is named "Newmaker". Despite this, fans have just taken to referring to both the uploader of the videos and game protagonist as "Paul". In order to differentiate between the uploader of the videos and the game protagonist, a popular solution is to refer to the video uploader as "Paul" and the game protagonist as "Naul", a combination of "Newmaker" and "Paul".

Real Life

Prior to about the middle of the 20th century, it was not uncommon for many babies who were stillborn or died very early in infancy (especially if they were ill at birth and not expected to live) to never be given a name.

The category 1 hurricane that resulted from the 1991 "perfect storm"note The storm itself was created by the absorption of a another hurricane (named Grace) into a nor'easter. was never given a proper name. This was done on purpose so there wouldn't be confusion among the media and the public, as most of the damage and attention was from and on the initial nor'easter, while the hurricane's damage was limited to power outages and slick roads (the single death the hurricane caused was due to a traffic accident). The name it likely would have been assigned was Henri.

The last member of the Yahi tribe of Northern California could only have his name known after a friend from his tribe introduced him to an outsider. Since he was the last one of his tribe, there was no one to introduce him, and he became known as "Ishi," "man" in his language. His real name will never be known.

Harry Truman's middle name was just the letter S. If you look closely at his name in e.g. textbooks you'll notice that it's 'S' instead of 'S.'.

An interviewer asked Truman about whether the S was supposed to have a period or not. Truman said he didn't really care either way.

Fridge Brilliance. The initial for the name "S" would be "S.". His initial is longer than his name.

It's said to have been a compromise between the names of his paternal and maternal grandfathers.

The college basketball player and coach Abe Lemons claims to have been born A. E. Lemons, and when it was told he needed a first name, he just put a "B" between the A and the E. Supposedly he later regretted not renaming himself "Ace".

Also Ulysses S. Grant, who was born Hiram Ulysses Grant and had his name changed as a result of an error on the recommendation given to him by a Congressman when being nominated to West Point (which he decided to just go with). His friends called him Sam.

This also made his initials U.S. Grant. Quite useful when leading the Union army and later running for President.

Not to mention the word spelled out from each of his first initials doesn't exactly strike fear into the enemy.

None of the members of synthrock band The Birthday Massacre use their real names. For example, there's Chibi on vocals, Rainbow and Falcore on guitar, O. E. on bass, O-en on keyboard, and Rhim on drums.

The band actually did let Chibi's given name slip when one of her bandmates called her by it during an interview. It's Sarah.

And now O-en has started calling himself Owen.

Members of Black Metal bands tend to go by aliases, with some famous examples including Count Grishnack, Euronymous and King ov Hell. If the band becomes sufficiently well-known the members' real names will usually come out sooner or later, though a few bands (e.g. Deathspell Omega) have managed to keep their members' real identities a secret.

In the band Lordi only Mr. Lordi's real name is known to the public, and he won't reveal his real face. The rest of the band is entirely anonymous in their civilian identities, and the media has agreed to keep it that way.

The members of The Residents have always remained completely anonymous and have always worn masks (most famously the eyeball mask, top hat, and tuxedo outfit) in performance and other media.

The Man in the Iron Mask (not that historians haven't tried to figure it out).

At least that one is probably based on the death of Kenji Urada, the first man ever killed by a robot.

Another example is the story of the Smiling Man. Shared on reddit as a true story, the man's smile and mannerisms heavily indicate he is mentally I'll and insane, but the OP didn't stay around long enough to learn anything else. It is likely we will never know just who the man was.

In ancient China, poorer women often were not given first names. The syllable "shi" (approximatable by combining the "sh" sound with the "ir" sound in "bird"), loosely translatable as "from the ___________ family", would be added to their maiden name. For example, if Miss Wu marries Mr. Li, she would be Li Wu Shi.

So did the ancient Romans. The woman would simply be called by the feminine version of her father's name. For example, Julius Caesar's daughter is Julia.

Natives of the South American rainforest seldom bother to name wild plant species unless they're either useful or harmful, as there are so many different plants there that keeping track of them all would be too confusing.

K2, the second tallest mountain in the world, is known as such based on quick notes from a surveyor marking noteworthy peaks on the mountain range ("K1" and "K2" were the two tallest). The locals never gave it a name and the K2 designation is still widely used for it, though China eventually started to officially refer to it as Qogir. Not surprisingly, most people still just called it K2.

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